South Africa shows the lowest rise in cybercrimes YoY, report
Cybersecurity company Surfshark conducted a study of the top 10 countries found to have the most cybercrime. According to the research, South Africa has the lowest YoY density increase of 2%, while in the previous year, the country showed the sharpest rise of 277%. The overall numbers in South Africa are significantly lower than the UK’s, which topped the overall cybercrime density list for the second year in a row. To put it in perspective, South Africa had 52 victims per 1M internet users, almost 92 times less than the list-leading UK (4,783 per 1M).
“As more of our lives become digital, the chances of falling victim to online crimes grow every year. Since 2001, the online crime victim count increased by 17 times, and financial losses grew more than 400 times, from $2,000 to $788,000 losses per hour,” explains Vytautas Kaziukonis, the CEO of Surfshark. “Inevitably, the privacy and cybersecurity landscape will change rapidly over the next several years. Now is a good time to focus on personal cybersecurity hygiene to stay safer online.”
The UK ranks first in cybercrime density worldwide, followed by the US, Canada, and Australia. Meanwhile, Mexico ranked at the end of the list with 16 victims per 1M users and a 14% rise compared to 2020.
The US, Australia, Greece, and Germany saw a decline in cybercrime density, with Greece facing a sharp 75% drop. Nevertheless, all of the countries, except Germany, rank in the top 5 of the list.
Germany, with 18 victims per 1M users, ranks second from the bottom, followed by Mexico.
What are the most popular cybercrimes?
According to Surfshark’s study, phishing continues to be the most common cybercrime for the second year in a row. In 2020, there were a total of 241,343 phishing victims. However, on average, phishing victims lost the least amount of money ($136 per victim), while people who fell victim to investment fraud lost the most ($70,811 per victim on average).
At the same time, investment fraud had the highest financial impact in total on its victims. People lost about $1,5B this way in 2021. That year the least impactful online crime was the Denial of Service (DoS) attacks – only around 1000 victims reported this crime with an average loss of $197.
“As the geopolitical tensions grow, we might see more cyber warfare and 0day spyware similar to Pegasus,” explains Aleksandr Valentij, Security Officer at Surfshark.
In total, cybercrime claimed at least 6,502,323 victims and $26,116,000,000 in losses over the 21-year period.
Witnessing this problem, Surfshark developed a Data Vulnerability Thermometer combining open-source FBI information and research algorithms. The online tool gives users their personal risk score, possible specific cybercrimes, and prevention tactics depending on the data points selected.
The Data Vulnerability Thermometer also contains descriptions, typology, tips and statistics of 20 different internet crime offenses aimed at individual users. This encyclopedia also has extensive coverage of statistics on trends and patterns in the field of cybercrimes. Users can check global cybercrime density statistics, their financial impact, yearly growth of cybercrime costs, victim count by age, and more.
The study can be found here.